8 Things You NEED to Know About Watches - A Crash Course to Watches

what's going on guys teddy baldustar here now i know how overwhelming watches can be if you're first getting into them and i've probably put off this video a little bit too long but i'm excited to finally address the topic today which is eight topics eight concepts that i think everybody should know about watches if they have a desire to learn more about them now before we get into this video head over to teddyballers.com full authorized dealer of 20 brands also have hundreds of different watch drafts available you can get five percent off your first order wait maybe you don't know what authorized dealer is maybe you don't know how to switch out straps on your watches you don't know the tools that you need well by the end of this video you will know exactly how to do that and also know what that means now before we get into this video here looking at eight topics one other thing to mention i have two videos that i think will be good to watch as well in unison with this video one will be looking at just the terminology around watches i think it's good to know the different parts of a watch if you want to actually know more about watches the other one is more about complications so complications basically anything outside of just telling the time on a watch so any other function for example in the watch that i'm wearing right now is in 556 has a date complication so that's a pretty simple one they get way more complex from there but i'd also reference that video in addition to this as being a helpful guide but to begin here i think the first place to start is looking at the two primary types of watches and by that i mean basically the movements inside of them so you have your mechanical watches and you also have your quartz watches now there are two different types of mechanical watches you have your manual or hand weld watches which actually require you as a owner of a watch to manually wind the watch using the crown inside of the case or you also have your automatic watches which will wind automatically with the help of a winding mass or a rotor on the back of the movement that will wind around or circulate around the movement and help wind the main spring inside the watch to provide it power but from here basically the process for actually telling the time is essentially the same once that watch is wound now all the stored energy in this winding is done by coiling up a mainspring inside a barrel in a watch now this is basically the epicenter for where power is stored within a wristwatch now what's happening from here is once that mainspring coils up very tightly it then will gradually start releasing energy through a gear train and basically we'll go down this gear train to a thing called an escapement and then work in unison with a balance wheel so what's happening here is that escapement wheel and then a pallet fork is going to lock unlock lock unlock and the other end of that pallet fork has a small pin that it's activating on with that balance wheel that's going back and forth back and forth basically acting like a pendulum and that is going to be the basis of being able to tell time and how this is going to translate on the front end of the watch is you'll find the second hand of a mechanical watch usually ticking as a sweeping seconds hand so it's more constant with its flow of movement rather than a tick tick tick it's more tick tick tick tick tick so that's what you'll see on that front end this is not always a fool proof way sometimes quartz watches will have kind of more of that sweep being emulated but that is what's happening it's using full mechanical energy to power a watch just through gears springs and things of that sort and all these mechanical watches typically will have beat frequencies three hertz four hertz and are not going to last forever so if you put a mechanical watch down for a period of time because it's using mechanical power it needs to be wound whether through wear or through manual winding usually will have a power reserve which is basically how long this process of stored energy from that main spring will happen until it runs out of that stored energy and will gradually just completely uncoil now the other most popular type of watch is a quartz watch so a quartz watch is going to be a watch instead of mechanical power to actually power the watch is powered through an actual electrical charge so using a battery and quartz movements unlike mechanical watches are much more accurate and are much easier to produce once they were developed and just to give some concept here on accuracy of accords typical cheap quartz watches that are out there are actually more accurate over a month than many mechanical watches are over a day so how a quartz movement works is through taking power from that battery and then through a small electrical charge that is created by the battery it is then passed to an integrated circuit and then is going to be delivered to a quartz crystal it's cut like a small small tuning fork inside it's nearly microscopic here so not to get too technical here but when that quartz crystal is sent that specific electrical charge it is then going to vibrate incredibly quick so we're talking 32 768 times per second as a result of an idea called the piezoelectric effect which is basically an idea when electrical impulse is sent to a quartz it is then going to vibrate at a specific frequency this was calibrated in a way where it's going to vibrate at that specific frequency here to allow it to tell time but following that vibration it's going to then send a frequency back to the integrated circuit that will then send an electromagnetic impulse through coils and a coil block that are in close proximity in order for the hands to move now given the difference in the amount of oscillations taking place between say that balance wheel versus this coarse crystal that's vibrating 32 000 times per second you could imagine that this is going to be more of an accurate movement which it certainly is in addition instead of using mechanical power it does require a actual third-party stored energy source which is that battery so you probably will hear very often you know a battery having to be replaced on a watch this is typically for a quartz watch the other thing to consider here on the front of the watch and a very easy way to tell in most cases not always true but in pretty much 99.9 cases on the front of the watch there'll be a ticking second hand but it'll be once per second that is usually a dead giveaway that is going to be a quartz watch so if you're playing along at home you probably can see that there's a lot of upsides with going with the cords when this thing was released it really did shake the whole industry up it's easier to produce it's more accurate because it uses a battery you don't have to worry about a power reserve just every few years you're just going to have to change that battery and then usually they're more affordable batteries but why are mechanical watches usually more sought after from collectors i think it really comes down to the romantic idea because they're usually handcrafted there's more moving parts the fact that it doesn't use an external power supply and it's all using just gears and components of that nature i think there's a lot of just endearing attributes about it and it really goes into more the romantic idea rather than it is more of the technological feat that it's able to accomplish so now for number two on our list for this video today we have just understanding the industry the different brands that make up the industry i've done a video on this subject where i really do a deep dive into the different brands of the industry and how it's all structured but really how it's structured is very similar to the automotive industry there's large conglomerates that own many of the brands that make up it so just to go through a few of these we first have the swatch group so this is a swiss group it was formed out of the ashes of the struggles facing the industry during the 20th century so this includes brands from really just a wide variety of different price categories so you have swatch on the entry level side you also have tiso hamilton longine you have omega which is really their mainstream luxury product and you also have higher end brands like a breguet for example and then in addition they also own movement manufacturer etta which we can discuss a little bit more in a bit then from a luxury end of the watch category you also have richmond so richmond very similar in terms of diversification like swatch but also has different luxury brands you have cartier vacheron constantine jlc iwc mont blanc longa panerai and many others then you also have the seiko group so this is the japanese powerhouse group that owns brands like seiko orient grand seiko creedor and other brands as well as well as offering up their own movements to be used by third parties then you also have the other japanese group the citizen group with of course citizen watches and then you also have bulova other swiss manufacturing brands like alpina and frederick constant and then also they own the movement manufacturer miyota then you have a brand that you're probably familiar with rolex and then also tudor both of those brands are privately owned and operated and are huge powerhouses in the industry of course then you have lvmh which is essentially the largest luxury conglomerate in the world and they've gradually started to grow their offering in terms of watches so they own brands like tag heuer zenith yublo and others then you have the caring group which is also starting to get into watches large luxury group elise nardan gerard perigo and then you have more independent brands so you have patek philippe which is independently operated you have audemars piguet as well you have breitling but now has just been owned by a private equity firm but is again kind of independently owned for the most part then you also have smaller brands like a nomos which is a very nicely operated independent brand with great output you have zen aorus and this is just scratching the surface there are so many smaller brands out there but from a macro point of view these are just some of the bigger brands that you'll commonly see and chances are a lot of the brands that you'll probably see from the mainstream point of view will typically be under one of these brand structures now number three is how your watch should fit and how to think about this when making a purchase with more people buying watches online i think it's very important to understand how a watch should fit you now when looking at how a watch should fit there's a few things to understand first is you should know the circumference of your actual wrist try on different watches and understand what makes the most sense to you but what i would recommend from a dimension point of view the three things that are going to be probably the most important one is going to be the case diameter one is going to be the thickness and the other is going to be lug to lug so case diameter pretty self-explanatory basically is the first thing mentioned with a manufacturer when selling online they're going to mention the case diameter and that's certainly going to be an important factor then you have your case thickness which is also very important if you don't want something that's huge big and bulky it will i think depend depending on the type of complication the type of watch whether it's going to be make or break for you and then you also have lug to lug this is a dimension that's typically not provided by manufacturers but if i had to say of the three that's probably the most important in being able to determine if a watch is going to fit you this would probably be the one and this is measuring from the top of a watch up here from the bottom of a lug to the top position at the top of the lug so kind of more measuring it from top to bottom here so for me i have a six and a quarter inch wrist and typically for me on the lower end of watches i like 34 to 36 millimeters when it comes to case sizes and typically getting around like 40 millimeters lug to lug and up and then going on the higher end usually 39 to 42 millimeters for sports watches is kind of where i make that cut off and 50 millimeters is that lug to lug distance when it comes to thickness i think anything under 12 millimeters for more of a dress or casual watch is a great choice and then anything under 14 millimeters or around there for divers and chronographs but i think 14.5 is usually my cut off there these type of just basis points i think are very subjective but you just have to try on different watches and really understand kind of what's best for you so look to lug and why i think this is so important is the watch that i'm wearing right now has around a 45 millimeter lug to lug distance but its case diameter is 38.5 millimeters but when you put it next to say this nomos orion which has a 35 millimeter case and around a 44.8 millimeter lug to lug distance it actually goes to show how two watches that have 3.5 just difference in case diameter often will wear on the wrist kind of in terms of luck to lug very similar just because the longer lugs on that nomo so this is why i think lug to lug is just very important it's usually something that's not factor in and i think is something you probably want to consider when looking at a watch but again often you're going to have to try to find it from a third party because manufacturers don't provide this another thing to consider in from the case diameter standpoint but also from the thickness standpoint when looking at a case diameter if a case diameter is 40 millimeters but say it has a bezel for example on the watch what that is going to do from a perception standpoint is make that dial appear smaller for example this the young hans maxbo chronoscope has a 40 millimeter actual case diameter selected lug is very compact in comparison to this rolex explorer ii which has a 40 millimeter case diameter as well and a much larger lug to lug distance but when you put them next to each other or strap them on the wrist for example they have very different types of wearing experience because one is all dial and one has that outer bezel so that's something to consider and then another thing to consider is thickness if thickness is where is it residing if it's residing mostly in the case then that is going to wear much different than if it was residing in the crystal so this maxwell chronoscope has a thickness of 14.5 millimeters but majority of that is going to happen from the dome crystal that wear is a lot different because of that you don't really feel that when you have it on the wrist in comparison to the actual case say with a tudor black bay which is kind of like a slabbed offside of the case which is just going to wear a little bit thicker on the wrist again this is very subjective you just kind of have to try things on figure out what's best for you get your wrist size try on different watches even if it's not the watch you're going to buy and that'll be a good way of figuring out what the best watches for you so next up we have straps and tools to really help take your watch to the next level now i always heard i heard this conversation one time as it was an old friend of mine who said i like the apple watch because i can swap out the straps on the apple watch well i think that's a really good point in showing that i think a lot of people do not consider that for a watch that you're looking at in most cases you can just switch out the strap with a lot of third-party options so i have hundreds of different straps on my site i think it's a great way to just get the most out of your watch now really all you really need to understand to be able to switch out a strap on your watch is to understand the lug width or the distance between the two lugs on the watch you'll just want to get something that's going to fit that so for example what i have on right now 20 millimeter lug width and by switching out the straps on it you can see how it just has totally different looks you can put a nato strap on it where it just will really look more casual then you also have the metal bracelet that it actually comes on so that's going to have a more sporty look then you also have leather straps which is going to kind of give it more of a field watch or maybe even a more dressy appearance and there's different leathers that you could choose from once you figure out that lug width you can have a ton of fun with this and be able to swap these out the only thing you have to consider is some watches have integrated bracelets so for example this maurice the quad icon how that bracelet is meeting the case is very unique it's pretty custom so in that case any third-party strap is not just going to fit this thing you need something very specific that's going to fit but most watches out there don't have this scenario and typically are going to be able to offer a ton of third-party options that you can buy from anywhere now to put the actual strap on the watch and just to kind of go over some basic tools that i think are very good to have one is a spring bar tool and i recommend virgin i have them available on my site they've been in business since the 1700s they're swiss made tools and they're just very useful usually they come with two different ends one is going to be a fork end and then inside what it will allow you to do and how you basically change straps is there's a little bar inside a spring bar it's basically exactly what you imagine a bar with a spring on it so you take this little fork end of this strap tool you push down on the spring and it will allow it to pop out and then you can pull out the strap and swap in new straps or bracelets for example there's also a pin end of the actual bracelet and a lot of watches will have uh scenarios where you can use that to either adjust bracelets if it's like a pin and collar bracelet or also drilled lugs and you can use it kind of poke out that spring bar rather than using that fork end it's a great tool i'd recommend getting virgin i think i've tried the cheaper ones they're definitely the best thing to have and you'll use it almost every day if you just try to switch out straps like i do all the time also there's other tools that are very useful you can get a screwdriver set to help adjust and you know change different bracelet sizes i think that's very useful uh there's other things that i think are helpful like a time grapher for example to judge the accuracy of your watches if you want to kind of get into regulation and things of that nature so that's a really nice tool but also there's just different things if you want to size up bracelets there's a you know a bracelet block different you know different tools that you can use to kind of take off case backs tweezers things of that nature if i actually have a toolkit on my site as well that you can purchase it's pretty affordable it has pretty much everything that you would potentially need to be able to work on your watch in the future until you start getting really into say like modding or things of that nature but tools and straps and just accessories i think you're so important to really be able to maximize your pieces and sometimes i don't think people really understand that this is the case so number five we're going to go back to movements understanding the different types of movements in-house versus third party and then also looking at certifications like chronometer certified so a couple terms that get thrown around a lot is the concept of in-house movements or different manufacturers like an etta or salida seiko miota as well as certifications like a cost certification or being a certified chronometer now first looking at the idea of in-house now the definition of in-house movements can get a little bit gray but in general it is a watch movement that has been designed and developed by a manufacturer within one of their own facilities and where this gets a little bit dicey is the construction of smaller parts like hairspring screws which often can be found by specialists or created by specialists and then are put into watches i don't want to get into the gray area of what makes in-house what makes something not in-house but usually in-house movements are more widely collectible they're more sought after and typically to even get in the game to have your own in-house movement it takes millions and millions of dollars to be able to create one and then to also do it at scale typically you're paying a premium for in-house movements they typically are a little bit more hand-finished or and elevated in terms of their overall appearance in some sort but they're not always better in performance and i want to get in on that so there's also third-party movements and third-party movements like etta they're in switzerland they're owned by the swatch group you also have miyota which is owned by citizen in japan these movements because they are mass produced and with some of them like the added 28 24 2 having decades in the market as well as other comparable movements like salida which are basically just clones or alternatives to etta they do have a lot of upsides they're usually cheaper to buy they're proven in the market being produced in the millions they've been around for years they're easy to regulate parts will be easier to source down the road and then service costs are so much lower than that of in-house movements and i mean much lower so yes in-house movements definitely are nice to have but sometimes the cost per ownership is just not there and i think this is often not considered by buyers so for me personally i do not mind seeing third-party movements inside watches unless we're starting to get into price territories of real luxury brands so like the 5000 and up territory but even then usually when watches are using those type of movements they're either using very highly modified versions of these or they're producing them at like a higher grade so there's different grades of these movements so you have your standards you also have your laboratories and your chronometer top grade movements as well and typically these higher grades are going to either have a performance but also usually up finishing as well when doing it and these top grade movements are the ones that are sent in to be usually sent for chronometer testing to be certified chronometers now the most popular chronometer certification is done by cost or cosc it's a swiss organization that tests watch calibers through a variety of different tests and if you want the specifics of what they're testing there's plenty of information out there i really don't have time to go through them all however a cost certification is basically just a widely recognized accreditation and does cost money to get the movement certified but it really just comes with added respect because as you if you know watches comes with the certification you know the value that was demonstrated with both the assembly but also the regulation of the movement and is a good way to know that a manufacturer is not cutting corners that said there are internal standards for many of the brands that actually exceed what is being done by cost so a lot of these high-end luxury brands won't even send their watches in for this because honestly their internal testing standards are higher than that okay so now number six we have water resistance and water resistance is probably one of the most misleading ideas in all of watchmaking so just to give the general rundown so when you buy a watch you probably are going to see something mentioning water resistance in meters which is pretty self-explanatory or atmospheres or atms or bars but where it gets a bit confusing is not actually the different phrases but the misleading measurements and limitations so when you get a watch that is tested and say it's good up to 30 meters it doesn't actually mean that you could do all activities up to 30 meters of water resistance basically it's just testing these watches at static conditions problem is though there's never usually static conditions when it comes to water you're creating vacuums as you move your arms if you had it strapped to your wrist there's pressure associated with being underwater at a certain degree so there's a lot of things to consider so just to give a run down of what each of these different specifications mean when looking at it on your actual watch so first you have 30 meters three bars or three atmospheres this is a watch it's going to be splash resistant so no swimming with this one this is one you don't want to get wet then you have your 50 meters of water resistance which is going to be splash resistance and can do some light swimming but you want to be a little more careful with this not doing crazy activities with it but will typically be okay i personally don't swim with 50 meter water resistance watches but however to say maybe you're just getting in a pool walking around it gets a little bit wet this is going to be good for that 100 meters of water resistance 10 bar or 10 atmosphere this is going to be suitable for most water activities you can swim you could do a lot of things in the water with it then you have your 200 meters of water resistance which is going to be suitable for basically any water activity you can think of things like snorkeling scuba diving that said there's also different certifications so like an iso certification for dive watches or certified divers that undergo strenuous testing in order to handle harsh conditions underwater so these are just standards that need to be met by professional diver watches so typically these watches are 200 to 300 meters of water resistance if not more and just require a lot more testing to take place there's a lot of divers out there that have 200 meters of water resistance does not necessarily mean that is a certified diver a couple other things to consider with water resistances watches with less holes in the case are going to be more secure to actual water resistance there's things called gaskets in a watch which are basically the seals a rubber seal within the watch that helps keep out water things like a screw down crown so a crown that actually has a thread on the crown you push down apply pressure and will allow it to be more kind of secure to not let water in and then also there's different types of watches like a chronograph for example i personally don't think it's ever a good idea to really swim with a chronograph unless it has screw down pushers because even if you are very careful you just bang one of those pushers in and it allows water to get into the watch that's going to be an issue and that's going to be very costly service and finally just because a watch is 200 meters water resistance the day you get it it doesn't mean that it's always going to be that as time goes on if a watch is not tested periodically it's always good practice if you are really pushing your watches the limit with water to always get your gaskets get your watch tested for its water resistance to make sure you are not at risk of the thing taking on water because again that's very costly and it's a bad day if that ever happens now next up we have the different types of crystals so there's basically three tiers of crystals or three different types of crystals that you'll commonly see first you have your acrylic your hazelite or your plexiglas crystals then you have your mineral style crystals and you finally have your sapphire crystals so all of them have their advantages and disadvantages first looking at your plexiglas acrylic and has a light crystals these crystals are typically the most inexpensive uh but they do have some advantages so they're usually easier to work with you can dome them very simply without really high costs they also have a very warm vintage feel because these were actually the crystals that were used in a lot of vintage watches i personally love the look of them but disadvantages are they do scratch quite easily but the good thing is you can use third-party things out there like a polywatch for example to really buff out scratches as long as it's not a big big cut or crease in the actual crystal you usually can rub these out then you have your mineral crystals so these are basically a nice step up in terms of up scratch resistance compared to plexiglass crystals they're a little bit harder to buff out scratches for but are relatively affordable and you also have seiko with the proprietary hard lux which is more of a mineral style crystal and then you also have sapphire crystals the great thing about sapphires is they are very scratch resistant they're very clear but they are harder to work with and they are way more expensive another thing to consider with sapphire crystals is usually there is a application of anti-reflective coating which basically just helps make the watch more anti-reflective in terms of looking at the dial so for the watch i'm wearing right now it has two layers of anti-reflective coating it's usually on the underside this one has both layers of it but really just it makes the watch look like it doesn't even have a crystal on it so sapphires can be very clear when you have this type of anti-reflective coating on it now number eight on our list here is the different places to buy watches so first you have your black market sellers and it basically you want to avoid these like the plague this is not places you want to go to buy your watches they're typically selling replica watches or counterfeit watches and the business practices behind this are of course illegal they're infringing on trademarks and if you buy these watches i don't think it's a good idea of course and the sellers are very much at risk of being prosecuted facing big fines or even jail time so i don't condone this stuff at all i would not go this direction ever and i don't think it's a good idea to ever have a fake watch the world lies you all the time i don't think it's a good idea to lie to yourself by wearing a fake watch so next up you have your gray market sellers now this one's a little bit more nuanced i want to do a video on this in the future kind of going into this into more detail because i think this is a very interesting concept in the industry so gray market sellers are sellers who are non-authorized by the brands to sell the products now how this market is created and usually what will happen is you'll see watches may be listed at a discount compared to the retail price and how this is all happening is basically these sellers are going and they're finding it through different countries or finding it through different sellers and all these different just little loopholes and finding products and being able to list them at a discounted rate they're usually buying things in bulk or trying to locate products to be able to list at the lowest dollar amount that they possibly can they're not authorized to do it it's not illegal to do it though and from the front end standpoint it looks like you can always get a good deal so just a couple things to consider here when looking at the green market just some ideas you don't really know where the products are coming from typically how it's happening is products are sold in one country and then they're pushed over to another country and then are sold at a discount that's one way this is happening another thing to consider is the products themselves often are actually not in stock so one thing you'll see typically is hey the product will be delivered in four to eight weeks or four to 12 weeks or something of that nature basically just assigned to you to say we don't have this watch we're going to try to go find it and then try to get it at the lowest dollar amount to give it at the price that we promised you at and then third here they don't come with factory warranties some of these different sellers will have their own warranties but usually i've found that they're not very good the customer service is typically not very good for these types of sellers either but if something does go wrong and you have to get a service then you're kind of out of luck you either have to spend the money to get it fixed and then also a lot of these larger conglomerates that i mentioned earlier taking big action on this even turning away some of these movements from actually being worked on when something goes wrong and when you're spending a lot of money i think that's sometimes a big thing to think about especially when you're dealing with like expensive servicing that comes with watches and owning a luxury watch the next type of sellers i think is a great option if you do want to get something at a reasonable price or a price that is uh i think more affordable and it's going pre-owned there's a lot of great pre-owned sellers out there that kind of give that more luxury experience and i definitely recommend this is a great way to go i have a video where i mentioned some different third-party sellers that sell pre-owned watches as well as vintage watches which i can mention or a link to down in the description below but i think pre-owned sellers there's a lot of good upside with this you can get a good price you often if you're buying from a trusted seller you can again just get that experience but you really want to buy the seller there's also some scary things that can happen in the pre-owned world if you don't buy the seller if things seem too good to be true typically they are usually they always are so i would avoid that find a good honest seller has a good track record and then just purchase from them it's a great way to get a good deal on watch and then finally you have authorized dealers so authorized dealers are sellers that are authorized by the brand to sell their products so i myself my store is an authorized place for all the brands that i am selling authorizers usually have a better customer service experience because of them representing the brands that's not always the case there are certainly some bad authorized dealers out there you get access to new products and you also get factory warranties which in a lot of cases is very helpful if something goes wrong with the watch or say something goes wrong with the movement and you have to send it in that's all covered if it falls within that warranty window because i mean some of these servicing for luxury products and they start costing hundreds if not thousands of dollars to get some of these service so the cost of ownership can be high and have a long warranty is very helpful but again if you do want that authorized experience i am an authorized dealer so five percent off your first order love to show you what it's all about but guys that is this video i'm sorry for this being so long but i hope that this could be a helpful source of information whether you are first getting into watches as well as somebody that maybe has been in watches for a while and maybe you'll learn something new here today but guys if you like the video there's a ton of work to put together please give it a thumbs up subscribe hit the bell icon if you did enjoy it also follow me on instagram if you want to stay up with future content again head over to teddybaldestar.com and anything else down below is there any other information that you think is useful for somebody that's just getting into watches uh that maybe it was overlooked here love to see comments down below i wanted to get more into the technical side not as much the subjective side of things things like collecting philosophies and things of that nature i wanted to avoid for another day but guys thank you again so much for watching be well and i will see you all very soon

Channel: Teddy Baldassarre

Views: 1,014,555

Rating: 4.9358168 out of 5

Keywords: 8 Things Everyone Should Know About Watches, watches for beginners, collecting watches for beginners, watches for men, what to know about watches, mechanical watches explained, mechanical watches, quartz watch movement, mechanical vs quartz watch, automatic vs quartz movement, water resistant watches explained, types of watch crystals, watches for teenagers, watch terminology, automatic watch how it works, automatic watch movement, everything to know about watches

Id: PFjYt66h_i4

Length: 29min 47sec (1787 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 19 2020